Standing Alone
by gouttesdejupiter
Summary: To an outsider, Owen lives the perfect life. Good grades, football player... But is everything really as it seems?
1. Chapter 1

Owen looked in the mirror and cross examined the person he saw staring back at him. Average height, average size, maybe slightly more muscular. He was a cliché and stereotypical jock, yet he had a way of flying under the radar and avoiding drama. And that was just how he liked it. He left his reflection for a moment and ventured to his closet. It was the first day of his senior year; his last first day of high school. After a few minutes of looking, he finally decided on wearing a light blue shirt with thin, black stripes and faded blue jeans. He went back to his mirror and teased his hair for a minute. After he decided he looked acceptable for school, he walked out of his room, turned off the light, and closed the door. He walked into the kitchen, where the smell of pancakes and bacon lingered in the air.

"Owen, honey, I hope you're hungry! I made you a big breakfast for your big day!" his mom said with an obnoxious smile.

Owen rolled his eyes at how desperate his mom was for things to get back to normal with them. Ever since his dad was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, things had been a little off. She was more tense and irritable, and because of this, Owen grew to be even more angsty towards her. Neither of them really liked how things were, but they learned to accept it. One thing remained the same between them, however- they both shared the fear of his dad's life.

"No, Mom. I'm fine. See you later," he said with a chill to his voice as he walked out of the door.

He walked down the sidewalk and onto the paved driveway, where his black convertible sat. He got in the driver's side, threw his bookbag onto the passenger's seat, and drove the 2 miles to school. When he got there, he drove around the parking lot and found a spot close to the front doors. He grabbed his bookbag, slammed the door, and walked into Degrassi Community School.

The very first person he saw was Anya MacPherson. God, she looked beautiful. She was wearing a red ruffled shirt and a flowered skirt. Her hair was neatly pinned back, and her brown eyes shone brighter than ever. Owen's heart skipped a few beats whenever he saw her nicely tanned hand reach up to push her hair behind her ears. He was in love with her; that was undeniable. But nobody needed to know he felt that way. She must've felt his eyes burning her back because before he could look away, she turned her head and smiled at him. He could feel the butterflies attacking his stomach and his heart skipping beats. He gulped and returned a shy smile. He quickly looked away and gently chewed on his bottom lip. 'Damn it, she probably thinks I'm a creeper,' he thought to himself. He decided not to think about it and walked into school.

He then saw the school's mos t famous couple- Eli and Clare. He sighed. How could two people be so perfect for each other… yet so different? This blew his mind, and he was forbidding himself to be jealous. He looked to his left and saw the Coyne twins, Declan and Fiona. They were the richest kids in the school, and if you didn't know that already, you could easily tell by the way they dress. Declan was always wearing a dress shirt and a tie, and Fiona always wore something that made her look like a middle aged business woman. He looked ahead and saw students from every grade flooding the hallways. Screams of friends reuniting were heard down the halls, and freshmen were walking around with their noses in their maps like lost puppy dogs. Out of the corner of his eye, Owen saw his best friend Riley leaning up against a wall of lockers. Riley was the starting quarterback, and he knew how to present himself as such. But despite his reputation, Owen felt that there might be something about him that he hid from everyone, even his best friend. Owen shot him a quick smile and walked over to greet him.

"Hey man, it's nice to see you. It's been a while," Owen said with a grin.

"What's up dude?" Riley asked, returning the smile.

The two walked to their first class together and got ready to endure the school day.


	2. Chapter 2

"Owen Milligan, to the office please."

Owen's heart dropped. His mom said she would take him out of school if things took a turn for the worst with his dad. Could this be the call he'd been dreading for the past year? He bit his lip, and began to pack up the stuff that was on his desk. Riley, who sat beside him, gently smacked him on the arm.

"What's up bro? Why are you leaving?" Riley asked with true concern.

"I… I don't know," he stammered, his whole body quivering as he walked out of the classroom door. He walked down the hall to the office, where he saw his mom sitting.

"Mom… What's going on?" Owen asked.

"Just come on, Owen. I'll explain it in the car," she responded, her voice shaking as if she was holding back tears.

The walk to the car was stuck in an uncomfortable silence. As soon as they got into the car, Owen gave his mom a sharp look that said tell-me-what's-going-on-before-I-explode-with-anticipation. She took a deep breath and smacked her lips.

"Owen… I got a call from the hospital this morning. They said your dad isn't doing so well. He didn't respond too great to the chemo, so they put him on these meds… Usually when they do that, it means the patient… Isn't going to live much longer. So I called the school immediately after to get you, and right after I hung up with them, the hospital called me back…" she said, before bursting into uncontrollable sobs. It took all of Owen's willpower not to pull his mom into his arms and comfort her.

"What happened, Mom? Is he alright?" he pressed, fighting burning tears of his own.

"No, Owen… He died literally within seconds of hanging up with me."

He could feel his heart shattering in his chest. This was all so surreal to him. His dad died? No. He didn't believe it. He couldn't believe it. But he knew it was true, and he knew he couldn't avoid it forever. He held his head in his hands and kept telling himself this was just a dream. No, not a dream. A cruel, sick nightmare.

"D-d-d-dead? Are they sure?" Owen stammered, raising his head to look into the eyes of his mother.

"Positive. There was no way they could get his pulse back. They tried everything. They wouldn't give up, I promise you that. And your dad wouldn't have given up if he had a choice. He was that much of a fighter," she assured.

Owen pulled his mother close to him and held her in his arms. He tried to soothe her by whispering sweet words of comfort into her ear, but nothing could help. He could easily understand why. It felt like there was a hole, a void in his heart that couldn't be filled. And what hurt him the most was the fact that he never got to say goodbye. His last memory of his dad was seeing him, in pain, at the hospital the day before, entangled in countless cords and needles. He hated seeing him that way, and was slightly thankful that he was out of his misery now. But that didn't make the pain any less blatant. He felt a sharp pang in his heart. He suddenly realized he had so many things he didn't say and wish he could've said. He wished he still had the chance to tell his dad he loved him. And he wished his dad could've lived to see his only son get married. But everything happens for a reason, he realized, and he knew him dying was, somehow, for the best. His dad was in a lot of pain, but now he was relieved of it. And that was a miracle in itself.

Owen walked out of his bedroom and down the stairs. He was dressed in a simple black tux with a black tie. He grinned as he walked over to his mom and asked her to tie his tie. She happily obliged, and laughed at how pathetic her 17 year old son was. Somehow the death of her husband and Owen's father two days ago had brought them closer together. There was so much less tension, and they rarely fought. It was almost back to the way things were before his dad got sick.

"You look beautiful, Mom," Owen said, pushing her hair out of her eyes and behind her ears. She was wearing a black strapless dress and matching heels. Her curly brown hair was pushed behind her ears and secured with what seemed to Owen like an entire bottle of hairspray. He walked over to her and gently planted a kiss on her right cheek.

"Thank you, Owen," she said, a faint smile spreading across her lips. "Shall we go?" she asked.

Owen took a deep breath and looked down. "Yeah, let's get this over with," he said in a voice so low it seemed like a whisper. Mrs. Milligan picked up her purse off of the table and walked out of the door, not far behind her.

The car ride to the church was stuck in an uncomfortable silence. When they got there, they were swarmed with condolences. Family members he'd never seen before gave him hugs and promised their prayers. While Owen deeply appreciated their care, it was very overwhelming. He was doing the best he could to stay strong, but the constant reminder wasn't helping the cause at all.

Owen was caught in a daze until his mom snapped her fingers in front of his face. He blinked and looked back up to the preacher.

"Owen, would you like to say a few words in memory of your father?" he asked, impatiently.

"Oh… R-r-right. Sure," he said, stammering as he walked up to the podium.

"My dad.. He was truly my hero. He wasn't famous, he wasn't an athlete. He couldn't fly, he couldn't save the world. But to me… He could. If there was something I needed, he was there. No matter what. I always knew that."

Tears began to well up in his bright blue eyes as he struggled to continue his thought.

"I don't know what I'm going to do without him. He told me how to ride a bike, how to read, how to tie my shoes… and he had so much left to teach me. And now he'll never get the chance.. But it's helpful to know that I'll see him again someday. But until then… I'll be left missing the most important person I've ever had in my life. My best friend, my role model, my dad."

Owen chewed on his bottom lip as he returned to his seat. He looked over at his sobbing mother, her head lying in her mascara stained hands. As the tears ran down his freckled cheeks, he prayed a silent prayer that he wouldn't have to feel this pain again any time soon.


	3. Chapter 3

The next couple of days were absolute hell for Owen. It's not that he was sad and depressed all of the time, he just felt… nothing. Absolutely nothing. That small part of his heart designated for emotions and density was shot. Life without his dad was something he never thought of before he had to face it. And now that he'd gotten there, he wished for absolutely nothing more than to be back in his dad's arms telling him how much he loved him. But he knew that was impossible, so it was time for Owen to come to terms with reality and try to move past it.

When he walked through the halls of Degrassi, things felt different. There was a lot more laughing in his general direction, though he couldn't recall having done anything to warrant this behavior. One day when he saw someone laughing and looking at him, he decided to say something. He grabbed Eli Goldsworthy by the collar and slammed him against the lockers behind him.

"Got something to say, emo boy?" he asked through gritted teeth.

Trying to avoid trouble, Eli fumbled to pull his phone out of his pocket to show Owen what he was laughing at. Someone at his dad's funeral took a video of Owen crying while giving his speech and uploaded it to YouTube. Five hundred thousand hits and it had only been up about a week. He was speechless. He considered himself a happy, kind person that people enjoyed to have around. But evidently he was wrong. He felt betrayed. He dropped Eli and watched as he melodramatically fell to the ground, as if Owen had seriously injured him. Owen walked away, trying to clear his mind. He didn't recall anyone having been at the wedding that would want this blackmail against him, but then again, he wasn't paying attention at all. It was his dad's funeral, for God's sake. He pulled out his phone and found the video once again, the views risen up to five hundred and fifty thousand. He found that the person who posted the video was known as "rfootballboy." His heart sunk. Could it be him? No, of course not. They were friends, why would he do that? No, no. He quickly shoved that idea out of his head and decided to go to a more powerful source- the police. Degrassi had one stationed inside of the school because of the Vegas night's shenanigans, so Owen practically ran to his office.

"S-sir… I need your help," Owen stammered.

"What is it, boy?" the officer replied.

"I need you to track the IP address of someone who posted this video," Owen said. He brought the phone over to the policeman and he took a hard look at the uploader before looking back up at Owen.

"You seriously don't know who it is? I don't even need to track it," he said. He walked out of the door and skimmed the hallway with his eyes. "Hey, you, come here. We need to have a little talk," he yelled at a far too familiar face.

Riley.


End file.
